In recent years with advancements in digital imaging, image sensors have become more popular for measuring macroscopic motions in a scene in three dimensions. However, estimating small motions in three dimensions using image sensors remains a difficult problem. Speckle imaging is widely used for micro-motion estimation in several applications, including industrial inspection, scientific imaging, and user interfaces (e.g., optical mice). However, current speckle imaging techniques are largely limited to measuring 2D motion (e.g., parallel to the sensor image plane) of a single rigid object. That is, current speckle imaging techniques are generally only useful for estimating the motion of a single object, and are not suitable for measuring motion toward or away from the sensor (i.e., axial motion).
Measuring micro-motions at macroscopic stand-off distances is not possible with conventional cameras and vision systems without using sophisticated optics. Furthermore, measuring multi-object or non-rigid motion is fundamentally more challenging than tracking a single object due to the considerably higher number of degrees of freedom, especially if the objects are devoid of high-frequency texture.
Accordingly, systems, methods, and media for determining object motion in three dimensions using speckle images are desirable.